When you calculate seating charts for an event definition (number of tables, chairs, rounds, etc.), a proposed series of seating charts can be generated and a summary is displayed. That summary displays the number of duplicates in the solution as well as duplicate counts for each table. Ideally there will be no duplicates at all within the solution.

(A duplicate occurs when two attendees are meeting at the same table for a second time during the event.)

Depending on the number of attendees, tables, and rounds, it may be impossible for all rounds to be completely duplicate-free. If that is the case, the software will try to come up with the seating chart with the fewest possible duplicates.

There are certain guidelines you should follow when determining how many tables, chairs, and rounds to process for an event. They include…

1. You should be shooting for tables with between 4 and 10 people per table. We have found that 6 or 7 people per table works really well.
2. In general, the more tables the better. For 100 attendees, an ideal number would be about 14 tables.
3. You should always have more tables than the number of chairs at each table.
4. The more rounds you plan for the event, the higher the likelihood of duplicates. With attendance of 80-120, usually about 6 or 7 rounds is the most you should go for (with 6-8 chairs per table). In that scenario, your 6th and 7th rounds will have a mere handful of duplicates (out of the 2,000 or so total connections).

Keep in mind that even when a table has a handful of duplicates, it is minimized as much as possible and it is a small minority of the total connections at that table, and a very small minority compared to all of the connections at all tables for that round.

Once all attendees have registered, you can select “Create Report” from the Report menu. This will automatically generate an Excel workbook that lists out every person sitting at every table for every round at the event as well as an attendee list with more comprehensive contact information.

You can retrieve information about your past events only from the Ignite installation at the computer where you processed that event.

Once you initiate an actual event by providing a purchased license (occurs right before the registration page), your event is automatically saved at every step. You can re-run the software later and register more people, view the report, and so on. The event is saved on the PC/laptop where you initiated the event - it cannot be transferred to another computer.

When you want to retrieve a saved event, go to the Saved Events option in the Event menu.